DRIVEN FROM HOME

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 6, 9 January 1928, Page 9

DRIVEN FROM HOME

PEOPLE OF PIMLICO TRAPPED IN BASEMENTS (Sydney Sun Cable.) LONDON, 7th January. The Thames floods were unprecedented. Even Eichmond and Twickenham were invaded and street traffic was suspended lower down the river. A convent at Isleworth was marooned across flooded fields. Water demolished the walls of an ancient palace below Richmond. A woman's body lying in a coffin floated away. The principal incinerators were flooded, preventing the collection of garbage for several days. Kew Green and the Royal Gardens, also Chiswick, on tho opposite side of the river, were- severely damaged. At Fulhatn at high tide water rose above the stage of tho theatre. The Chelsea and Pimlico districts were inundated, the river breaking the banks in the vicinity in two places, forty yards long. Many living in theae thickly populated districts were driven out of thsir homes. It was a night of terror all through the flooded areas. In ono case a bedridden woman of 80 years was caught in a basement. A man dived in and found the bed floating against tho ceiling. Rescue wag impossible. Escapees clad in nightclothes crowded the streets, children being terror-stricken. Police reserves were called out and mounted men traversed the streets, knocking at doors and rousing inhabitants. They- rescued many on horseback from windows. _ A man waa trapped in a. basement at Ponsonby Place. „ A hole was cut in the floor of the room above and he was lifted out unconscious. Swans swam on Horseferry road. :